Why are there extra symbols in Design System Manager (DSM) that I didn’t add?

When you add a Sketch symbol to your Design System Manager (DSM) library, DSM will add two additional groups of symbols:

Symbols that are nested inside that layer—as well as all child layers of each nested symbol

Symbols that are the same size as any of the nested symbols and can be used as potential overrides

Conversely, when you add a symbol from your DSM library to a document, DSM also adds any dependencies. This allows you to choose from the maximum number of overrides when designing.

How do I view symbol dependencies?

Symbol dependencies—like nested symbols and overrides—are usually hidden and won’t appear in your Components folder or in the DSM web view.

To view all symbols, including dependencies:

In Sketch, click the DSM icon () or use the keyboard shortcut Command + L.

At the top left of the DSM modal, click the library name.

In the drop-down menu, hover over the current library name and click Manage Symbols.

What if I don’t want these extra symbols?

Currently, there is not a way to add a symbol to your DSM library without also adding nested symbols and overrides. If you don’t want to add same-sized symbols, slightly resize those symbols so that they are not the same size as the symbol you’re adding to your DSM library.

Although you can’t prevent nested symbols and overrides from being added, it is possible to remove existing symbols from your DSM library.

Deleting symbols

To delete symbols from DSM:

In Sketch, click the DSM icon () or use the keyboard shortcut Command + L.

At the top left of the DSM modal, click the library name.

In the drop-down menu, hover over the current library name and click Manage Symbols.

Click each symbol you want to remove. Then, click Delete Symbols.Note: If you attempt to delete a nested symbol, you will see a warning message that deleting the symbol may break the containing layers.